Whose Garbage is it?

And who should be bothered about it? Well it’s certainly us, the ones who were responsible in creating it in the first place. We witness the collection and movement of Garbage starting early in the morning manifested as society housekeeping boy collecting garbage door-to-door and ubiquitous Garbage trucks that annoyingly block office traffic, dripping foul smelling waste. This has become an inevitable part of our life through which we gingerly trot about avoiding pot holes and mounds of garbage.

It was alarming to read that Mumbai generates 6,500 tones of garbage every day, and that does not include construction debris and sewage. To illustrate the quantum, one could imagine a 7 kilometer long queue of garbage trucks moving out of Mumbai. This activity is repeated day after day, and we cannot imagine the breakdown of this system even for a few days. The enormity of the situation urges us to think and act more responsibly towards efficient collection and disposal of garbage from our homes.

Consciousness towards Solid Waste Management is integral to residential project design. As part of services design, it is critical to provide for mechanisms, allocate space, and facilitate collection & disposal of solid waste. Garbage chutes provided in the building with loading trays on each floor need to be provide with internal cleaning systems to maintain cleanliness. The collection bin below the garbage chutes should be designed to avoid spillage. The residents need to consciously organize garbage collection based on segregating recyclable waste in separate garbage bins.  BMC has not had much success in implementing the segregation of garbage due to lack of support from housing societies. Residential layouts should have designated garbage collection points to facilitate entry and exit of garbage collection trucks.

Extending the discussion to overall consciousness towards managing waste and effluents, housing projects should be equipped with Sewage Treatment Plant generating recycled water for flushing and gardening. This would effectively reduce per capita water requirement from Corporation to about 30 litres. The leaves and shred foliage should be treated in a vermi-compost unit to convert into useful manure.  Adoption of environment friendly technology and consciousness can address adequately the concerns of urban planners about burdening city’s weak civic infrastructure.

So lets get positively concerned and do our bit..which is not much really..and make the difference.